Japan's ruling LDP to regain upper house majority

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party will regain majority in the upper house of the parliament for the first time in 27 years, after an independent lawmaker submitted the application to join the party, the party said Wednesday.

Tatsuo Hirano, a lawmaker who had been reconstruction minister in 2012 under the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), left the DPJ in 2013 and became an independent. In Sunday's upper house election, he gave his support to a LDP candidate.

Hirano submitted an application to join the LDP after being invited by LDP Secretary General Sadakazu Tanigaki on Tuesday, according to local media.

Hirano's switch to the LDP would bring the seats of the ruling party in the 242-member upper house to 122, which will give Prime Minister Shinzo Abe more power to push for his political agenda.

Abe's ruling LDP and other forces in favor of revising Japan's pacifist Constitution won a two-thirds majority in Sunday's upper house election, bringing the prime minister's goal of constitutional revision closer to fruition.

(APD)